NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MarkB" data-source="post: 6188424" data-attributes="member: 40176">That was my response in the survey, straight down the line. They're all workmanlike descriptions of the beasts as they exist in D&D, but contain nothing inspiring at all.For the Bulette, while I know it has an established history in D&D, there's nothing particularly evocative about it for me. It has that "land shark" label, but it doesn't look anywhere near sleek and deadly enough for that.Personally, I'd consider a flavour and appearance re-skinning to make the Bulette a little more like the Graboids from the Tremors movies. Maybe even extend it to giving them a multi-stage life cycle, but without slavishly copying the movies.With the manticore, that "dimly intelligent" part doesn't do much for them. I'd consider bringing them back to purely animal intelligence, or else leave their actual intelligence score as it is, but emphasise an attitude of low, vicious cunning that dictates their interactions with both masters and prey.Owlbears are desperately in need of some form of hook or special feature that brings them out of being just a weird not-animal for the DM to use when he's tired of apes or bears. Stop with the "probably" malarkey about their creation, and build something interesting upon their origin story. Like, maybe their arcane origins leave them with a craving for arcane magic, and they will favour magical beasts and arcane casters as prey, singling them out with a weak innate Detect Magic sense.In addition to eating magical prey, they like to line their nests with any magical items they find, either upon their victims or that they happen to find within their territory. An owlbear which manages to include sufficient arcane magic in its diet and surroundings may achieve a dim level of intelligence, becoming a smarter hunter and possibly learning to communicate. Arcane casters can occasionally tame an owlbear to serve as a guardian by providing a constant supply of magically-infused food and housing, but if the supply is ever interrupted for even a single day, the owlbear will return to its untameable feral nature.Pseudodragons are your standard magical pet, and a little too idealised in that role. Give them some form of culture, goals and motivations of their own and they may start getting interesting.</blockquote>

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